Through Their Eyes
by Hakuhunter
Summary: When pokemon collector Samuel gets turned into an eevee, he'll have to travel with the very things he tries to capture; pokemon. Along the way he will learn that pokemon aren't just tools for battle or just things to collect as he sees the trainers world through their eyes.
1. Chapter 1

"668."

"668?"

"Yes, 668."

The old man stared back at the black haired boy astounded that someone so young could catch that many pokémon.

"How many more do you need to catch in order to complete the pokédex, Master Samuel?"

"Please, Jason, do just call me Sam." The dark haired boy said. He then took a sip out of his glass that was filled with iced tea. "Four more." He answered.

"Only four?" The gray haired butler replied as he thought about it for a moment. "I thought there were 719 pokémon."

"That would be true, but only if you count the legendaries." Sam replied as he looked out the window of the two-story mansion that towered above the rest of the city. "And everyone knows they do not truly exist." Sam then turned to Jason, "Even if they might be real, they aren't required to catch for Prof. Oak's contest."

"Of course, of course." Jason responded while still sitting in his leather chair that was placed in the corner of the room. "What was the prize for filling up the pokédex again?" He asked. He knew that Sam had told him it before, but his memory was failing in his old age. To this, Sam smiled a little.

"$100,000,000, my friend!" Sam said as he walked across the elegant rug that covered most of the wood floor . "Not only that," He continued, "but 3 of the most rare pokéball there is."

"Which is?" Jason asked when Sam did not continue.

"The master ball!" Sam replied. Jason looked at him with a puzzled look.

"Is the master ball really that good?"

"Indeed. It can catch any pokémon without fail."

"Really! Without fail…" Jason trailed off, thinking about what kind of material they would have to use in order to make something that was flawless in catching pokémon. "Well when you've caught all of the pokemon, why would you need to catch anymore?" He then asked.

"Well let's say I find a shiny or if one of these legendaries really do exist." Sam replied and took another sip from his glass. "I wouldn't want that opportunity to go to waste." After Sam said this, Jason looked at him with a small smile. "What?" He said once he saw Jason staring.

"I just can't believe someone as young as you could catch all the known pokémon." Jason responded. Sam just laughed.

"I'm sixteen Jason."

"That is still really young." Jason stated before launching another question that was on his mind. "Which ones have you not caught yet?"

"Well, out of the four, three of them are eeveelutions." Sam said. Jason gave him a questioning look.

"Why have you not caught very many eevees?" He asked with inquiry.

"You yourself must know that eevees are very rare and finding them out in the wild is very hard." Sam said as he drank the last of the tea that was in his glass and started to pour himself some more, careful to not spill it on his suit. This one wasn't as extravagant as some of his other ones and it wasn't even new, but he still didn't want to ruin it.

"Of course." Jason said and then asked "Can't you breed them?"

"Yes I can and that's what I'm trying to do, but it is taking awhile and I fear someone else might win the contest before I do if I just obtain them through breeding. That's why I have Steven looking for some out in the forest."

"Alright then. Which ones are they?" Jason questioned. Sam looked up to the ceiling as he tried to remember them. After a few seconds of thinking he replied, "A glaceon, a flareon, and an espeon." Sam said. Jason then finally got out of his chair and poured himself some tea as well.

"Why those?" He asked.

"Well, it's not that I dislike those, they're just the ones I haven't gotten to yet." Sam said as he took a sip out of the newly filled glass. "When I tried to get an espeon the eevee actually evolved when I was sleeping, so it turned into an umbreon. I've never gone up to the mountains to evolve one into a glaceon and the fire stone was the last stone I obtained so I haven't been able to use it yet." Sam finished.

"I see." Jason said. He started going back to his chair but stopped once he realized that Sam had only named about three pokemon. "What's the last one?"

"Guess" Sam said and sat down in a chair across from Jason's. The butler thought about it for a second.

"A blissey." Jason guessed. Sam just smirked.

"It wasn't the easiest thing to raise and it did take awhile but I got one." After Sam said this, Jason sat back into his chair and gave it another thought.

"One of the fossil pokémon maybe."

"Wrong again friend. Most of them I just bought from scientists and gave them back once I had the pokédex entry from them. One more guess." Sam said. Once again, Jason thought about it long and hard and finally came up with his last guess.

"Well it has to be one of the starters." The butler said, but he knew that he had already lost when he heard Sam chuckle. "What is it?" Jason finally asked. He was very surprised by the words that came out of Sam's mouth next.

"A mightyena."

"A mightyena?" Jason was once again astounded, but this time for different reasons. "Why on earth have you not caught a mightyena?"

"There really aren't any in this area and since they are fierce predators not many people are enthusiastic about going out to catch one, even if I pay them a lot of money."

"Well you have a poochyena right? Then why don't you train it into a mightyena?" Jason asked. Sam paused and then looked at the ground as he replied, "I _had _a poochyena."

"Had, sir?"

"Had." Sam confirmed what he had said. He sighed, knowing that Jason would want to know more. "When I first got the poochyena out from it's ball to train it, it slashed my leg and then ran off before I could recall it. I haven't seen it since." Jason knew that Master Samuel had a scar on his leg, but he never knew how he got it until now.

"I'm sorry master." Jason said. But then, looking on the bright side, he said "Well maybe you might find it again. And if you do, you would just be able to recall it right?"

"Yes, but I don't think I'll ever run in to it again."

"You never know." Jason said "You never know."

After Jason said this they both heard someone running up the stairs. Then a man entered the room. He was wearing the same attire that Jason was, but was a lot younger. He did, however, still have some years on Samuel. The man was still panting when Sam spoke up. "What is it Steven?" He asked. The man called Steven, who had finally got his breath back said, "I've found one sir! An eevee! I've found one!" To this, Sam put his glass down.

"Where is it?" Sam asked hastily.

"On the other end of town sir! In the forest" Steven replied.

"Get the car ready."

"Yes sir!" After Steven said this he ran down the stairs and Sam followed soon after. He stopped at the door and started to put on his scarf and mittens.

"Um...Master Samuel, I have a question." Jason said as he carefully stepped down the stairs.

"What is it Jason, I'm in a hurry; actually come on we can talk on the way there." Sam said as he left the house and went outside. Jason did the same and once he got outside he felt the chill of the air that accompanied the late Autumn season. His close he had on didn't help with the cold air. Once they had both entered the limousine, and the car got going, Sam looked back at Jason. "What was your question?"

"Well it's just that…" Jason was trying to think of the right way to word his question. "What if the eevee doesn't want to be caught?" Sam was taken aback by this question.

"What do you mean Jason?"

"Well you know that pokémon have feelings just like we do. They have families and goals in life, just as we do. I was just wondering if this pokemon doesn't want a trainer. Maybe it's happy in the wild." After Jason said this, Sam was silent for a minute. The only thing that could be heard was the soft humming of the car on the road. After what seemed like forever Sam spoke up.

"Why should I care?" He asked. "Pokémon are just that; pocket monsters. That's all they are. Their purpose in life is to be caught by us and trained. And anyone who thinks differently is a fool." Sam took a moment to breath. "I see no reason when I am this clothes to completing the pokédex that I should just stop. Do you?" He finished.

"I guess not" Jason concluded. He had a clear look of sadness on his face, but it disappeared as fast as it came.

"Do you have my pokéball ready?" Sam asked.

"Of course. Here it is" Jason said as he took a shiny gold plated pokéball out of his jacket pocket. Sam took it and held it in his hand. After a few more minutes, the limo stopped. Steven looked back from the driver's seat and said,"I found it around this area. Good luck sir!"

"Thank you Steven. I'll be back soon so wait here." Once he said this he left the car and started walking into the forest. That was the last time Steven or Jason would see Sam for another week.

Samuel started to look around in the dense forest for one of the most elusive pokémon known to man. Steven said he had seen it around here, but it could have roamed to another part of the forest or even went out of it entirely. But he still had to try. He was so close, that he could taste the prize money. He was going to win this, and no one would stop him.

After searching for about 15 minutes he was starting to lose hope. What if he never did find it. He would search until nightfall if he had to but that might not be e-.

"Hey Sam! Funny finding you here." A voice behind him said, interrupting his thoughts . Sam turned around to see his old friend Dallas standing there. He wasn't wearing anything extravagant compared to the suit Sam was wearing; just a red T-shirt and some blue shorts along with a blue baseball cap that faced backwards. Then again, he wasn't rich. And even thought it was the beginnings of winter, the cold didn't seem to mind him a bit.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked, yet he knew what the answer would be.

"Catching pokémon, what else?" Dallas responded. "What about you? I didn't think you went out to catch pokémon."

"I don't" Sam said. It was true. Usually he would have his servants catch it or pay someone else to. "But I heard that there is an eevee somewhere around here, and I'm going to catch it myself for a change."

"Oh, I saw an eevee!" Dallas exclaimed. "But it got away from me before I could catch it. I wonder if it is the same one?"

"It probably is." Said Sam. "They're so rare that the one Steven saw was the same on you saw.

"Well, hope you have a better time catching it then I did." Dallas said.

"Me too…" Sam replied "Well, see yeah."

"Yeah, bye." Dallas said as he went off towards the town. Sam, however, went in the opposite direction. He still needed to catch that eevee.

After some more walking (and even getting scrapped by some thorns) he arrived at a clearing in the forest. "This is one of the only spots in the forest where sunlight gets through." Sam said to himself. "Maybe I'll find it here." It was a good thought, but there was no one sunbathing today, probably because the sun wasn't directly above and so not a lot of sun got through. Sam sighed to himself and was about to go look somewhere else when he saw something enter the grove. It was small, brown and had long ears. It was an eevee.

Sam wasted no time at all as he threw his gold clad pokéball at it.

"Eev-?" was all it was able to get out before it was sucked into the ball. It fell on the ground with a clink and started shaking. It shook about three times and then he heard it click as the lock tightened. He smiled a bit and went over to pick up the ball. His own custom made pokéball was a golden variant of the quick ball. This way he didn't have to battle the pokémon before he caught them. Sure they cost a lot to make, but it was well worth it. Right when he was about to pick it up, it opened. But the eevee didn't come out. Instead, a red line of energy shot out and hit Sam square in the chest. Then, Sam started to get sucked into the ball.

"What the-!" was all he could get out before he was sucked into the black abyss that was the pokéball.


	2. Chapter 2

Samuel was stuck inside the pokeball for what felt like forever. He didn't know how to get out, or even if he could get out. He tried to shake around and move, but nothing happend. After trying to get out of the ball for the 5 minutes and failing, he finally gave up. He hoped that someone would come and get him out of the ball. Maybe Dallas would come and find the pokeball and get him out. Sam didn't want to be stuck in this ball forever. He thought it was impossible for a human to get sucked into a pokeball, yet, here he was. Maybe he had a bit of pokemon blood in him that he never knew about and the ball mistook him for a pokémon-he really didn't know. After he gave this a thought, he heard a click and saw the ball open as he was thrusted outside. The bright light from the ball opening blinded him for a second, but before he could see again, he heard a voice talk to him.

"Hey, are you alright?" The person said. Sam had never heard this voice before, so it wasn't someone he knew. When the bright light had diminished, he looked for the person that talked to him. However, what he saw was not what he was expecting. In front of him was a pink, cat-like pokémon with a split tail. It was an espeon.

"Yeah I'm fine." Sam replied, looking around for this espeon's owner and presumably the person who just talked to him, but he didn't find anyone else around.

"What are you looking for?" The voice came again. Sam looked back at the espeon and as he did, he realized three things. One: this espeon in front of him was the voice that was talking to him. It seemed impossible, but there was no one else around. The voice was coming from the espeon's direction. Two: If the voice he heard was indeed this espeon, then he understood what it said. Humans usually couldn't understand pokémon. It would just come out as a growl or whatever their species name is. Three: The espeon was the same height as him. This was odd because espeons were considerably smaller than the average human. Sam was trying to piece together what was happening before the realization hit him. He looked down at himself and what he saw confirmed what he thought. Instead of hands, he saw brown paws as well as a tan bundle of fur on his neck. This new information hit Sam like a ton of bricks. He almost fell over in shock. However, he caught his balance at the last second.

"Are you sure you're okay?" The espon said again when he saw that Sam almost fell over without a reason.

"Yeah, just… a bit winded is all." Sam replied, while in reality he wasn't okay. He wasn't just 'a bit winded'. He had just been turned into a pokémon from some weird mishap and now he wasn't even sure if he could turn back into a human. This was all just too much for Sam to take in at one time.

"I can see you're pretty ruffed up. Here, I know a place where you can wash up." The espeon said. "Follow me." Sam did as he was told partly because he didn't really have anywhere else to go and partly because he was still in shock. They walked back towards the entrance of the forest where Sam had come in from to catch the eevee that he got turned into. After a few minutes of walking in silence, it was broken by the espeon. "I'm sorry," said the espeon, "but I don't believe I caught your name earlier." Sam wondered if he should tell him his real name, but then decided that it would cause no harm. Besides, he wasn't going to stay with this pokémon for long. He needed to get back to his house and somehow undo the transformation.

"Sam will do." The now eevee replied.

"I'm Cassius." The espeon said back. Sam nodded in acknowledgement.

Nothing more was said until they arrived at their destination. It was a cool blue lake in the middle of a group of trees. Sam must have missed it when he walked in earlier. It was almost like it was a hidden oasis inside the desert of a forest. Sam approached the water cautiously and stared into it. He knew what he was going to see. He didn't want to face the truth, but he also knew that it was inevitable. Indeed, just as he had predicted, what he saw in his reflection was not a his face, but the face of an eevee. He washed himself up with water and afterwards he started to head out of the forest. Sam needed to get back to his house. If anyone knew how to get him back into a human, it would be Jason.

"Where are you going?" Cassius asked him as he walked away from the pond.

"Home." Sam said simply. He then walked out onto the streets of the city and noticed a map on the road. "_How convenient."_ Sam thought to himself. He walked up to it and stared at it intently. The map showed the entire town. He knew his house was on the opposite side of the town and so therefore he would have to g-

"Where do you live?" Cassius asked behind him. Sam jumped at the espeon's sudden arrival.

"Over there, on the other side of town." Sam said as he recovered from almost having a heart attack. He then started to walk down the street away from the pink pokémon, homeward bound.

"I hope you don't plan on going to your home through the city, do you?" Cassius spoke up again from where he was sitting.

"Why not?" Sam asked.

Just then a child came into view from down the road and Sam froze. Once the child saw Sam, however, he reacted exactly the opposite.

"Whoa, an eevee!" He said as he took out a empty pokéball and threw it at Sam. He just narrowly dodged it as he jumped away. The ball landed right where he had previously been. Sam started to run back in the forest in fear of being captured. He didn't want to become someone's slave. He felt another ball wiz passed him as he heard the kid behind him say "Come back here! I want to catch you."

_Yeah, because that will change my mind._ Sam thought as he ran into the cover of the forest. He didn't stop running until he was sure that the kid wasn't following him. Sam stopped to catch his breath.

"Who does he think he is?" he said "Trying to capture me! ME!"

"That's what humans do." Cassius said casually from behind him. Sam jumped again, and then growled at the espeon.

"Stop that!" He yelled. "And you! You didn't even try to help me! You just stood there watching! Enjoying the show?!"

Cassius shrugged. "The burned hand teaches best." Sam sighed. There was no point in arguing with him. Then a thought occurred to him.

"Hey if I was already in a pokéball, that means that no-one can catch me right? Because I already have an owner."

"Well yes, that would be true," Cassius responded "if your pokeball wasn't broken."

Sam stopped and looked Cassius in the face. "Broken?" He asked

"You didn't see it? There was a crack on the side of your pokeball. I was surprised that it was able to hold you in the first place."

Sam was stunned by this new revelation. He had never seen a crack in the ball. No, he didn't look too hard at it, but he felt like he would have seen a crack. This might also be the reason that all this was happening. Sam dwelt on that thought for a moment before he realized that this meant that getting home was going to be a lot harder than he had originally thought.

"So how _am_ I going to get home?" Sam asked with a little bit of hopelessness in his voice.

"You would have to go around the city through the forest." Cassius replied

"How long will that take?"

"Hmm. I'd say maybe a week."

"A week!?"

"The city is quite large and it takes a while to go through it. Even longer if you go around."

Sam sighed as he realized that his fantasy of just being able to leisurely walk to his house wasn't coming true.

"Well, guess I should get going." Sam said as he started to walk deeper into the forest.

"I hope you don't mind, but I would like to accompany you." Cassius said as he caught up to him.

Sam didn't know if he should let him follow. Then again, he knew the area better than Sam did. Also, if he did get to his house and got turned back into a human, he could then catch the espeon. Sam responded with a nod.

After about a half-hour of walking without any kind of stimuli to distract him from the walking he was doing, Sam was dying of boredom. He decided to strike a conversation with Cassius. Even if he was a pokemon, it would still be better than not talking to anyone right now.

"So, why did you want to follow me?" he asked.

"Well I don't really have anything to do." Cassius replied. "And I always like helping out fellow eevees.

"Alright." Sam said. They walked a little farther in silence while Sam tried to figure out another question to ask him.

"So… Why did you decide to evolve into an espeon instead of the other 7 choices?" Sam asked.

"I didn't."

Sam was a bit confused by this answer, seeing that Cassius was indeed an espeon.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I didn't decide to become an espeon. It just came to me."

"How so?"

"Well back when I was owned by a human I didn't really know what I wanted to evolve into. I hadn't put much thought into it. My master wasn't the wealthiest, but he still offered to either buy me a stone, or take me to either the mossy rock or the icy rock. The problem was I just didn't want to evolve. I was fine with being an eevee. But there was one day when I woke up early to watch the sunrise, which I did every day, when I just evolved. Right then and there."

"Do you regret evolving into an espeon?"

"Not at all. I might even like it better than when I was an eevee."

"So you lived with a human once?"

"I did indeed."

"Why?"

"Well I was born and raised by a breeder actually. Then a man came and bought me and I lived with him for about 6 years.

"So how did you get out into the wild?"

"Well…" Cassius stopped talking for a second before continuing. "My master died about 3 months ago."

"Oh…" Sam replied. For some reason, Sam felt sorry for him. But that all went away when he remembered that it was just a pokémon he was talking to. "I'm guessing you were close to him?"

"Very." Cassius replied. "In his will, my master said to release me to the wild. So here I am."

Sam looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was setting. "Where are we going to stop for the night?" He asked.

"I know some other pokémon that live nearby. We can stop there for the night."

"Are you sure that they will let us stay with them?"

"Sure. They love to help out other pokemon in need. They also owe me a favor."

Sure enough, about ten minutes later the two pokémon arrived at the house where presumably Cassius's friends were living. It was a human built log cabin, but it was obvious that it hadn't been inhabited for a long time. It was a very run down building, seeing that it was falling apart. Nature had also taken its toll. Vines and grasses were growing up the walls and there was a tree that had fallen into the side of it.

"This is where your friends live?" Sam asked.

"I think. Unless they moved since I was here last." Cassius responded.

The two walked up to the door. It, like the house, was at the point of decay. The wood was rotting and was also turning a sickly green color. Cassius stood there for a moment and then Sam heard three knocks on the door. Because Cassius was about 2 feet away from the door, Sam assumed that Cassius had used his psychic ability to knock on the it instead of using his paws. Sam didn't know If he did this just to look cool, or if it was actually easier than knocking with his hands. After a few seconds of silence, the door creaked open and out came a red and orange pokemon with the same body structure as an eevee. It was a flareon.

"Oh, Cassius, what brings you do our house today?" he asked

"Greetings, Drake. We would like to stay here for the night if it is not to much trouble." Cassius responded.

"Of course. Anything for you Cassius. Who's this?" Drake asked when he saw Sam standing there.

"This is someone I met when I was just walking around. Drake, this is Sam. Sam, Drake."

"Nice to meet you." Drake said while nodding. "How about we get you out of the cold. Come in." he said. Sam hadn't even realized before that it was cold. Must of been the fur. Both Sam and Cassius when inside the house after this.

If the outside of the house was bad, then the inside was atrocious. It wasn't very big, it only had one room. The tree that had fallen into the house let a lot of moisture in, which really didn't help the decaying that the whole house had. In the corners of this small abode, there were 4 hay beds that were surprisingly dry for being inside a rotting house. There was a berry basket in the middle of the room with a few berries already in it. Sam couldn't identify them all. There were oran and pecha berries, but the others he didn't know the names of. However, the thing that caught his eye the most was a light blue creature that sat next to one of the walls. It had crystal like ears and had two hair like strands coming down from it's head. Sam recognised it as a glaceon. He couldn't believe that three out of the four pokemon that he still need to catch were right here inside the same room with him. Sam then heard his stomach growl. He hadn't eaten in a while and seeing the berries reminded him just how hungry he was. Drake must have also heard this as he then told Sam "Go ahead and eat some." Sam did not hesitate. He took one of the pecha berries and sat in one of the bed corners and took a bite out of it. It was surprisingly sweet. Drake went and sat by the glaceon and Cassius sat by the opposite wall.

"So what brings you here today Cassius?" Drake spoke up.

"We are stopping here before heading up north." He responded.

Drake just looked with a face of horror at Cassius.

"You know what's up north right?" He said. Cassius nodded.

"Yes but it's the only way to get Sam home."

"What's up north?" Sam asked. He had been there a few times and so had Steven. He didn't think anything was out of the ordinary. All he knew was that it was more forest.

"Houndoom territory." Drake said grimly.

"Houndoom territory?" Sam questioned.

Drake just nodded. Sam knew that there were a lot of houndoom in the area, but he didn't think that it was their territory.

"Is it really that bad?" Sam asked.

"Have you never seen a houndoom?" Drake questioned back. Sam thought about it for a moment. Of course he'd seen one, he got it by trading to some guy and then trading right back. Sure they looked scary, but how bad could they be.

"He is a house pet, so he probably hasn't seen many other pokemon." Cassius defended.

"Oh," Drake replied whilst looking at the ground. "You live with humans. That explains it."

"What's wrong with humans?" Sam snapped at Drake. He was angry that this little pokemon could say that we, humans, were bad in some way or another.

"Don't mind my brother," the glaceon that was beside Drake said. "He's just not to fond of them. I'm Lily." She stated.

"Hm," Sam grunted an acknowledgment. Lily went and sat by his brother again and then spoke up.

"Hey Dray?" Lily said to get her brother attention.

"Yeah?"

"What if we go with them?"

"With them?"

"Well it's just that… I'm afraid that they won't make it through the houndoom territory. You know how dangerous it can be. You also remember what Cassius had done for us right? This is the least we can do for him."

"I guess." Drake sighed "Fine."

"Thank you for your assistance." Cassius said. "We'll leave tomorrow morning. Now if you'll excuse me." Cassius then sat down, closed his eyes, and his breathing rate slowed down as if he was asleep.

"Is he asleep?" Sam asked.

"No, he's not." Drake answered. "We don't actually know what he's doing. And when we ask him he just says he's 'meditating'."

"Do you not believe him?"

"I don't know. He just seems really vague about it." Drake said before yawning. "I'm going to sleep. Good night." Sam then realised just how tired he was too. He laid down and closed his eyes._ "Since we are all going to my house," ,_Sam thought,_"I can just capture them all." _Sam couldn't believe his good fortune, but then he stopped as he fell into a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry I haven't uploaded a lot lately. I just have a hard time getting myself to write. Hope you like this chapter!**

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><p>Learning to walk on four legs instead of two wasn't that hard to do. It was like crawling, but it would be like if your lower legs were cut off and more weight was put on your hands. However, even though it was easy, it still felt really weird. As such, it still took a lot of time to get used to. And even after hours of walking, it wasn't getting any less strange for Sam. The sun was high up in the sky, and because they left when the sun was rising, he guessed that they had been walking for about five hours. This was also apparent in Sam's legs and stomach. He hadn't eaten since that morning, and because of this, he was starving. As if Drake could read his mind, the flareon asked if it would be a good time to stop and eat lunch. Everyone agreed and all four of them started to tear into the berries that they had brought for the trip. Apparently, Lily had found a sack about a month ago and was waiting for a journey like this to happen to use it. The only problem was that they had only brought the berries that were leftover inside Drake and Lily's house, which wasn't a lot. After everyone had eaten his or her fill, there were only two berries left, and that was certainly not enough to last them the entire journey. Cassius volunteered to go and find some more and Lily offered to go with him. So the two of them went to go find some berries, which left Sam and Drake to their lonesome. Since Sam had nothing to do until the two got back but rest, he decided to ask a question that he hadn't thought of before.<p>

"So how do you two know Cassius?" He asked Drake. He didn't answer and just looked at the ground. "Drake?" Sam asked again.

"There was once a point in time where Lily and I didn't live in that old run down house," Drake said without looking up from the ground. "At that point we were just travelers in search of a home. One day when we were walking, these humans came out of no where and tried to capture us. They were wearing these strange black outfits with large red 'R's on them."

"Team Rocket?" Sam exclaimed.

"You know them?" Drake looked up in surprise.

"Yeah. They're notorious pokémon thieves." Sam said. "I heard about them from my masters." He then added so he wouldn't raise suspicion of knowing about other human activities.

"Hm." Drake grunted, looking back down at the ground. "Well they were about to capture us when Cassius showed up and blasted them away with his psychic power. He led us to the house you saw us in and we've live there since. We have always been in his debt, and we try to help him out as much as we can."

"I see," responded Sam. They sat in silence for a while, and since it was so quiet they were able to hear a strange noise off in the distance that sounded like someone shouting. "Do you hear that?" Sam asked.

"Yeah I do," Drake replied. "Let's see what it is." So the two started off in the direction of the sound. A few minutes later they arrived at an area that was devoid of trees. Sam looked around the area for the person that was the maker of the sounds. He saw a young boy and a golem. And wouldn't you know it, the young boy was none other than Dallas.

"Come on golem. You call that a rockslide? You have to try harder!" Hearing this, Sam couldn't help but smile. He knew that Dallas was a pretty serious pokémon trainer. He had two main practice spots. This one, and one closer to his house. However, even though he was good, he wasn't the best. In fact, he held a grudge against another strong trainer that had beaten him 3 times already. Interestingly enough, that other trainer went on to become the champion of the Sinnoh league. Sam had told him that because of this Dallas didn't stand a chance, but he wouldn't hear any of it. He trained his pokémon very hard every day. Because of that, some people told him that he was pushing his pokémon too hard. "Pokémon have feelings just like we do," they'd say. Sam didn't really understand what the problem was. If you wanted to be a good pokémon trainer, then you needed to work hard.

"Pathetic." Sam heard Drake say. This got him mad.

"You know, just because one group of people that were bad tried to capture you, that doesn't mean all humans are bad!"

"Wrong. I know all humans are bad. They all think of us pokémon as just tools or pets. They never see us as equals."

"What about pokémon trainers?" Sam butted in. "I know some of them see pokémon as equals."

"You want to know what I think of pokémon _trainers_?" Drake said the word trainers with a lot of sarcasm in his voice. "Because of _trainers_ my mother is dead." Sam's mouth dropped open when he heard this.

"How?" he asked, horrified.

"When me and Lily were just small eevees, our mother would always bring us to this waterfall. Lily and I loved that spot. We went there every week. But one time when we went there, a trainer was there as well. He was about to capture me when my mother jumped in front of me and got captured instead, allowing Lily and I to escape. We didn't hear from her for a long time. We finally found another one of the trainer's pokémon who had run away from him. He told us that the trainer had worked her too hard and she had collapsed of exhaustion. Because she wouldn't get up, the trainer kicked her to death. That's what I think of _trainers._" Drake finished.

"I'm sorry," Sam said before he even realised what was coming out of his mouth. _Why am I sorry? _He thought

"No, you're not sorry. You can't be sorry. All your life you've just been raised up thinking that you've been loved. But the truth is that no humans love pokémon. We are just pawns to them, things to be collected and captured. And trainers, they're more like abductors. Because that's all they do. They capture us and force us to battle others for their own good. Look at that golem," Drake pointed towards the rock pokemon. "The trainer there doesn't care about it. All he cares about is being able to defeat his opponents in battle. They don't care about us, and that's why I don't care about them." Drake finished while walking away. Sam looked back at Dallas one more time before following Drake. _Was he right? _Sam thought._ Is that all people think of them._

As the two walked back to the camp, Sam couldn't shake the feeling of sympathy for Drake. Sam didn't know why he was feeling this. Drake said it himself: Sam wasn't sorry. But for some reason, the feeling just wouldn't go away. Sam's thoughts were interrupted when he heard an eerie howl coming from the direction that Cassius and Lily went.

"A houndoom!" Drake growled. "The other two might be in trouble. Come on!" Drake started to run in the direction with Sam close behind. After a minute of running, the two arrived at what seemed to be a grove of berry bushes, and in the middle of it was Cassius and Lily. Right in front of them was a pokémon that had black fur and long horns coming out of it's head as well as things that looked like shackles on its legs. Sam recognised it as a houndoom.

"That's not a good enough reason to be running through our territory and stealing our food!" the houndoom said. Afterwards, he rammed his head into Lily as she went flying into a tree with a loud 'THUD'. She let out a yelp and fell down to the ground. Sam heard a growl come from Drake as he yelled, "No one hurts my sister!" Drake then ran at an incredible speed and smashed into the houndoom making him stagger backwards.

"Oh great, more of you." the canine said as he shot a large ember at Drake. The flareon prepared himself for the hit, but right before it hit him, the ember was stopped by an invisible wall and dissipated into thin air. Sam didn't entirely know what happened, but he figured that Cassius had thrown up a light screen just before the ember hit. Drake took this time to launch an ember of his own. Unfortunately for the houndoom, he didn't have an espeon to protect him and the ember hit its mark. However, the houndoom just shook his head and got back in his battle stance. Just then Sam remembered about Lily. She was still struggling to get up when Sam ran to her.

"You alright?" he asked her.

"Yeah." Lily replied, shaking of the pain. "He's going to have to do more than that to take me down." She said with a smile as she jumped back into the fray. Sam felt like he should also help, but what could he do? He didn't how to attack. Well, he could just tackle it, but he didn't want to get anywhere close to that houndoom. He tried to think of some of eevee's attacks that were ranged. Sam didn't battle with the pokémon he caught, so he hadn't memorised any attacks, but he thought that he remembered one. Sam didn't know how to do it though. Did he need to think of the attack to activate it? Did he need to get into a state of mind? How long did it take? Would he know when it was about to happen? Suddenly, he felt some energy built up in his chest. He instinctively opened his mouth and a bunch of stars came out. Sam didn't even know how he did it; it just felt natural. The stars traveled so swiftly, that the houndoom didn't even have time to react. The projectiles hit him one after another. The recoil from the stars made him launch up into the air.

_That was cool. _Sam thought. However, to Sam's dismay, the houndoom landed on his feet. He then counter-attacked by blowing a flamethrower in Sam's direction. The eevee ducked just in time for the flamethrower to go right over him. A few hairs might have been scorched, but other than that, Sam was unharmed. Physically, that is. Mentally, not so much. He had, after all, almost just been roasted alive. _Guess the light screen only protect people around him._ Sam thought. Therefore, Sam decided that he would watch the rest of the battle from a distance. The skirmish went on for about 30 more seconds, but because the houndoom was constantly being pelted by embers and icicles, and his attacks being nullified by the espeon, he didn't have a chance. Even though the attacks were little and didn't affect him that much individually, they added up. At last the houndoom ran back into the forest. Everyone gave a huge sigh of relief now that the battle had been won. Sadly, everyone also knew that this was only the first of many battles.

"We need to pick as many berries as we can before he comes back with reinforcements," Cassius noted. Everyone agreed. The three eeveelutions started to pick berries from the bushes, but Sam stayed back. He had a question that was on his mind and he needed to ask it.

"Hey, Cassius?" he started.

"Hm?" Cassius responded while plucking some berries with his psychic abilities. Sam took note that almost all the little tasks that Cassius did, he did with his mind instead of his paws or mouth. He paused for a second to wonder how society would be different if humans had telepathy. It was an interesting thought, but he discarded it when he remembered what he wanted to ask.

"Why weren't you attacking the houndoom? All I saw you doing was throwing up barriers."

"True," Cassius responded, "but that was because I couldn't fight."

"Why not?"

"Because the only offensive attack I know is powered by psychic energy," he said while plucking the last berry and putting it in the bag. He waited until Drake and Lily had put theirs into the bag before tying the rope, once again, with his mind. "Think that should be good for now," he muttered, and then continued "And you know that psychic attacks do not hit dark types."

"Yeah," Sam said barely above a whisper. He was always curious as to why that was, but he never had the chance to ask anyone who knew. _He might know, _Sam thought. He then proceeded to ask him. The espeon finished tying the bag before answering.

"It's actually very interesting. So you know that you have to make a telepathic link with the target before you launch a psychic attack, right?"

"Sure?" Sam said unsure.

"Alright, we have all the berries we can hold. Let's get out of here," Drake said as he picked up the bag and put it on his back. The four started walking again in the direction of Sam's home, or at least, he hoped. Sam had no way to know if Cassius was leading him in the right direction or not, but Sam trusted him. He felt really weird thinking that. Trusting a pokémon? Not two days ago he would have never trusted a pokémon's directions. But now, it just felt like the right thing to do. Had he stooped this low to trust a pokémon? Or had he, perhaps, been awakened from his blindness? Only time would tell now.

"So can you not get a telepathic link with dark types?" Sam asked Cassius to refresh the conversation.

"Well, kinda. You see, every living being has an aura, which you can't normally see. The thing with dark types is that their aura stops any kind of psychic links of making it through. Why? I don't know. That has always been a mystery to me. However, there are sometimes holes in the auras of pokémon. In that case, you would be able to get through if you timed your attack right. I do think that there is a move that allows the user to see auras. So if you were to use this move on a dark type, and then aim through the holes in the aura, you would be able to hit dark types with psychic attacks. That's why the move is named miracle eye."

"Interesting," Sam said once Cassius was done talking. This brought up another question. "Then why did you want to help me? Back when you agreed to help me, you didn't know that Drake and Lily were going to join us. You also knew this was houndoom territory, so you knew that you wouldn't be able to battle anyone. Why? Why risk your life to help me, someone you just met?"

Cassius' answer was slow. It took him a while, but when he did, his answer was another question.

"Do you really need a reason to help someone?"

Sam let this sink in before he replied. "I guess not." What was confusing him was that a pokémon had said this. If a human said it, it would be fine. Something about a pokémon saying it, however, just didn't stick with him. He didn't think that pokémon were able to be good or bad. To have that choice. There were just to be captured and used right? Weren't all pokémon just monsters? _Maybe not, _Sam thought. _Maybe not._


	4. Chapter 4

Sam knew that because they were traveling through houndoom territory, it was inevitable that they would run into a lot more of them. He was just hoping that they would get through the rest of the day without meeting another one. This, unfortunately, was not the case. As Sam and the others were walking, they found another one of them. This one, however, hadn't seen them yet. It was currently distracted by something else. The four travelers hid in the brush while they spied on it from a far.

"Think we should tangle with this one?" Cassius asked.

"I think we should pass," said Sam, remembering how he was almost turned into ash by the last one. "We could just go around this one, seeing how we don't need to get into anymore battles today. Besides, this one looks even more powerful than the last."

"True," Lily commented. "I also don't want to have a meeting with anymore trees for awhile," she said in a light-hearted way. Everyone let out a small laugh.

"Hang on," Drake said once everyone had stopped. "Who's that," He pointed at a another large canine pokémon that they hadn't seen before. It was being backed onto the edge of a cliff by the houndoom. It was all black and gray with long shaggy fur.

"I don't know," Cassius said. "I've never seen that pokémon before."  
>"It's a mightyena." Sam said casually. Of course Sam knew what it was. He himself had taken the time to memorise what all the pokémon looked like and if you gave him a picture of anyone of them, he could tell you what it was without fail. Everyone started to look at him with a quizzical face.<p>

"How did you know that?" Drake asked.

"What?" Sam questioned him.

"I thought you said that you just lived in a house and don't get out often." Drake rebutled. "If that's true then how do you know what mightyena are?"

"Oh uh…" Sam stumbled over his words. He forgot that he was just supposed to be a house pet. He had never been very good keeping his intelligence to himself. "I read a book about them back at the house I live in," Sam said, making up a quick excuse. However, just after he said this, he knew that he had made another mistake. He mentally hit himself for saying that.

"I didn't know you were literate," Lily said with a surprised look.

"Oh…yeah... I am." Sam replied back nervously. He forgot that most pokémon couldn't read. Cassius stayed silent this whole time just watching the confrontation between the two dark types.

"That mightyena looks like she's in trouble." Cassius noted as the bite pokémon was edging ever closer to the cliff that would mark her doom. "I don't know if she can beat him."

"Well in that case," Drake said, while slinging the bag of berries of his back,"why don't we help her? That houndoom does look tough, but I think we can beat it, especially if that mightyena is on our side."

"You sure?" Lily asked nervously.

"Mightyena are vicious predators," Sam pointed out. "They aren't any better than the houndoom in that aspect. We could just end up helping the mightyena and then have her turn on us.

"Do you just want to leave that mightyena there for dead?" Drake asked. Sam couldn't help but notice that the people who wanted to fight were the ones who didn't get hurt the last time.

"I guess that you have a point there," Lily stated, defeated. She knew that her brother was right. If that mightyena was her, she'd want someone to come and help.

"But we need to get more ground before nightfall," Sam whimpered. They had actually covered enough ground for that day, but the truth was that that Sam just didn't want to be in another fight. Even if it meant saving a pokémon.

"Just come on!" Drake yelled. This sudden outburst took Sam by surprise. "Are you just that heartless! Come guys." He motioned to the others. "I'm at least going to help her." Drake jumped out of the bushes where they were hiding. Cassius followed suit.

"Are you going to come?" Lily asked.

"I really don't want to." Sam replied. He didn't want to sound like he was complaining, but he didn't want to get burned more.

"It will be fine." Lily reassured him.

"You sure?"

"I promise."

Sam looked into Lily's eyes and saw her determination. "I guess." Sam said, knowing that he had to do this. Both him and Lily ran out of the cover they were in and went to catch up to the other two. Sam just hoped that Lily was right.

When Sam and Lily had caught up to the other two, they were staring each other down.

"I could take down all of you." The houndoom boasted. "Let me show you," he said and shot an ember at Cassius. The espeon put up a light screen and the ember just bounced harmlessly off. The houndoom shot a flamethrower at Drake, but to no avail as the light screen just deflected it. Lily jumped into the fray and fired some icicle spears at the dark pokémon. Each one of them hit their mark, but the houndoom just shrugged them off like they were nothing, which, to a fire type, they probably were. After this, the houndoom countered by blowing a flamethrower in Lily's direction. It hit the light screen as normal, but then it broke through and almost hit Lily as she just narrowly dodged to the side. Even Sam had to step to the side to avoid being roasted. They houndoom took this time to run and head-butt Drake. Right before he hit him, the houndoom smacked into another wall right in front of the flareon.

_I think that was Reflect _Sam thought. _Nice move_. The houndoom had a different opinion of the situation.

"Oh you think you're so smart, don't you." He said as he turned towards Cassius. "Well then, block this!" he shouted. The houndoom then started sprinting at speeds that were very hard to see. To any outside viewer, which was everyone except the houndoom, it looked like a white sheet was covering him. That was, of course, if you could even have seen him in the first place. The houndoom rammed into the reflect and tore right through it. He then proceeded to smash into Cassius, throwing him across the field.

_Wow that attack's powerful._ Sam thought, hoping that Cassius was alright. He looked back at the houndoom and saw that the attack had clearly taken some energy out of the houndoom and maybe have even hurt it a bit. _Guess the attack's a bit of a double-edge sword. _Sam thought. _Actually, I think that's what the move is called._ After this, the houndoom opened his mouth in order to shoot a flamethrower at Cassius. Right before he was able to, the mightyena tackled him and sent them both sprawling on the ground. Sam took this time when he was distracted to go over and check on Cassius.

Once he got there, he could tell immediately that he was out cold. He could, however, still see him breathing, so that was a good sign. Sam's attention snapped back to the battle once he heard a howl. Sam looked back and saw that the houndoom had gotten on top of the mightyena and had bit down hard on her neck. The mightyena was able to push off the houndoom before he got very deep, but Sam shuddered to think what would have happened if she hadn't. Once the houndoom recovered, he shot a string of embers at the other dark type. Without a light screen in place, all the embers hit the mightyena and she fell down as she gave another howl of pain. Drake shot a flamethrower at the houndoom. He tried to dodge but was unsuccessful and was engulfed by a wall of flame. For a bit, no-one could see anything because of the smoke. Suddenly, a barrage of embers came out of the smoke and hit Drake. The houndoom then jumped out of the smoke and charged at the flareon. He was just able to dodge out of the way. However, since Lily was just behind Drake at the time, she took the full force of the hit. She too was tossed across the battlefield.

"Lily!" Drake yelled and ran over to her side where she lay on the ground. "You alright?" He asked. Sam guessed that he felt partly to blame for the head-butt hitting her.

"She won't be for long." The houndoom said with a grin. He then went to end it with one last flamethrower. Sam knew that Lily was about to be engulfed by flames, but could do nothing to stop it. There was no way he could charge up an attack in time to stop the houndoom from incinerating her.

"NO YOU DON'T" Drake yelled and ran in front of Lily. The flamethrower made contact and the flareon was hit by a river of fire. Drake screamed out in agony from the shear heat. Sam knew that fire attacks on fire pokémon didn't do a lot of damage, but they still hurt, especially a flamethrower this strong. Drake hit the ground once the flamethrower was done. After this, thinking that the glaceon wouldn't be a problem, the houndoom turned on Sam.

"One more," he said, clearly exhausted from all the attacks he had endured. Sam thought of what to do next. He could just run, but he quickly scrapped that plan. He wouldn't know how to get home as well as not able to fight anymore houndooms that he found. No, he would have to stay and fight. Sam didn't like the idea of battling, especially with a fire type, but he had no other choice. Sam saw the cliff, and it gave him an idea.

The houndoom shot out some embers in Sam's direction. He tried the best he could, but a few of them still hit him. Sam tried to ignore the burning he felt in his side and launched a swift attack. The stars moved in the houndoom's direction. He tried to dodge, but they just homed in and hit him in the side. While the houndoom was recovering, Sam ran in and rammed him with as much strength as he could. The houndoom howled in pain as he was hit with the force of the attack. Sam had herded the houndoom near the cliff. He put all of his energy into one more tackle and hit the houndoom as hard as he could. The houndoom was pushed to the edge of the cliff by the force of the tackle. The houndoom lost his balance and fell off the cliff. Sam went over to the cliff and saw as the houndoom fell into a river down below.

"See you next fa-!" Sam started to say, but decided it was too cliché and went to check on the others.

Lily was the first to get up. She ran over to Drake to see how bad the damage was.

"Dray?" She prodded him. "Dray? Are you okay?" Drake didn't answer. Sam decided that he would go and see if Cassius was still unconscious. He was. Sam wondered if he should try to wake him or just let him sleep. Once he decided the latter, Sam went over to where Lily was.

"Is he going to be alright?" Sam asked

"I don't know," Lily responded with obvious concern in her voice, the optimism and happiness that she usually had, gone. "That flamethrower was strong. Usually my brother can withstand fire attacks like that, but this one just knocked him out cold. Could you go and get our bag? There should be some rawest berries that should help with the burns."

"Sure." Sam replied and then went back to where they left the bag before the fighting.

Once Sam had returned, he noticed that everyone was up except for Drake. They were all round the flareon when Sam approached them, even the mightyena.

"Is he alright?" Sam asked again.

"I don't know." The same answer came, this time from Cassius. "He was hit pretty hard. Those berries will help though."

"Right," Sam said as he slung the bag off his back and started to look through the bag. "What do rawest berries look like again?"  
>"I don't entirely remember." Cassius said. "There are a lot of them I think-"<p>

"They're blue with green leaves," the mightyena said in a monotone voice. This caught Sam off guard and caused him to stop. That was the first thing that she had said all the time that she was here. Everyone looked at her, but she didn't say anything more.

"Right..."Sam replied and continued looking.

"I was only able to find these two." Sam mumbled through his mouth as he brought the berries to the others.

"That will be enough for now." Lily said. "but that won't be enough for the entire journey. I just hope we will be able to find some more." Cassius took the berries from Sam with his mind and gave one of them to the mightyena.

"Here, you need one." He said to the mightyena. She looked at it hesitantly, and then took it and ate it. "We'll give Drake his once he wakes up." Cassius said and gave it to Lily. He then looked up at the sky. It was the late afternoon, approaching on evening. "We should set up camp here," he said. "I don't think we will be able to travel much more in this condition anyway." Cassius then turned to the mightyena and said "You're welcome to stay here too if you need to." She just nodded, went over by a tree and laid down.

"Is it a good idea to stay here?" Sam asked Cassius. "I mean, there is one houndoom that knows that we are in this exact spot."

"True," Cassius responded, "but let's just say the houndoom probably won't be able to tell his kind for a while," he said with a grin. "Lily told me how you knocked the houndoom off the cliff." He said once he saw that Sam was about to ask how he knew that.

"Oh...yeah…" Sam said a bit shyly. Everyone thought that he took out that houndoom to save everyone, when in reality, he did it to save himself.

"Come on," Cassius said, "come help me set up."

Apparently, since they didn't have any tents or beds to use, 'setting up' was as simple as finding things like leafs and bundles of grass that were comfy to sleep on. After all that was over, Sam decided what to do next. He didn't want to go to sleep yet, so he decided that he would go and talk to someone. Since the mightyena clearly did not want to talk and Cassius was doing his weird meditation thing, he decided to go and talk to Lily.

"Is he going to be alright?" Sam asked for the third time that day as he approached Lily. She hadn't left her brother's side since he had been hit with that flamethrower.

"I think so," she replied, with a little bit more confidence than last time. "He woke up while you guys were out gathering the bedding. I gave him his berry and he just fell right back asleep."

"I hope he'll be good in the morning. Otherwise we'd have to wait longer until he's recovered." Sam said as he sat down beside Lily.

"Even if he's not good he'll still want to go." She said with a smile. "He hates being a burden so I don't think he'll want to slow us down." There was silence for a bit while Sam wondered what to talk about. He eventually spoke up.

"I can tell he really loves you, taking a flamethrower like that."

"He does. Sometimes I feel that he loves me too much. We're the only family that both of us have left, because…" Lily trailed off, trying to avoid the topic.

"I know," Sam responded. "Drake already told me."

"Well… that's why he hates humans so much," Lily said. "He thinks that all humans are bad because of that one."

"Hm…" Sam replied with a grunt.

"I don't believe him though."

"Why so?"

"I know there are good humans out there, that's why."

"You think so?"

"I_ know_ so." Lily reiterated.

"What makes you so sure?" Of course, at this point, Sam was just seeing what Lily would say. He knew that there were good humans. Dallas had always been a good friend to him. He thought that both Jason and Steven were good people. Even though he didn't see his parents much because they were always on business trips, he thought that they were good people as well. He wanted to hear what Lily, a pokémon, would say about it, though.

"Even though a human killed my mother," Lily said with hesitance, "or that some trainers don't treat pokémon with any respect, doesn't mean all of them are bad. Like your owners. You think they are good right?" Sam thought it strange to think Jason and Steven were his owners, but he had to keep everyone thinking that he was a pokémon.

"Yeah," He replied "I think that they are."

"Drake believes that people just lie to pokémon and say that they are friends when they aren't. Do you think that's true?"

This time, Sam could not give an honest answer. He knew that Jason and Steven cared about him, being his guardians, but he did not know what they felt about pokémon. Then, he thought about Dallas. He was a pokémon trainer, so he felt of pokémon as friends. Then, Sam remembered when he met him earlier that day, when he was training his golem. Drake had said that Dallas didn't care about it. Was he right? He would need to ask him once he was human again. But for now, he gave Lily his true answer.

"I don't know."

Lily replied with a thoughtful "Hm…"

"Were you hurt from where that houndoom hit you?" Sam asked to change the subject.

"A little," She replied. "But now it's mostly just sore now. It was pretty great what you did back there."

"What?" Sam asked, and then realized she was talking about the houndoom fight. "I guess."

"You really did save us. If you weren't there, I don't want to think about what would have happened."

"Yeah…" Sam wasn't going to bring up the fact that it was because of him that they were here in the first place.

"Then again," Lily continued, "I guess that's what friends are for," she looked at him "right?"

Sam was taken aback by this comment. Friends? Them? But they had only know each other for one day. Plus, he was a human and Lily was a pokémon.

"Sure." Sam just said without even processing. After this, Lily gave out a huge yawn. "I'll let you get some sleep." He said, more of an excuse to get away than to let her sleep. Sam walked towards where he had set up his own little bed. Sam hadn't realised that he was tired, probably because of all things that had happened today. He couldn't get what Lily had said out of his mind. "What friends are for…" he repeated to himself quietly.

"Hey Sam?" He heard a voice behind him. He turned around and saw Cassius standing behind him. He hadn't realised that he had awoken from his 'meditating'.

"Yeah? What's up?

"I wanted to ask you a question. Follow me," Cassius said and then led Sam a little bit aways from camp.

"What is it?" Sam said once they got there.

"Why didn't you want to help save the houndoom earlier?" Cassius asked.

Sam cringed at this question. He couldn't tell him the real reason, that he just didn't think saving a pokémon was worth his time. He had to come up with something else.

"Well, it's just that-"

"It's because you're human, isn't it?"

Sam was visibly shaken when he heard this.

"How… did you-"

"Being a master of the pokédex, I would've assumed that you knew how."

Sam had never caught a espeon, so he didn't know a lot about them, since he hadn't gotten the full data. He tried to remember a time when he heard something about espeons.

"Hey Sam?" Dallas asked as he and Sam were walking home from school.

"Yeah?" Sam answered.

"If you were an eeveelution, which one would you be?" Dallas asked. Sam thought this was an odd question.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well I was just thinking about it since we just learned about them." Dallas said. Sam remembered when he first learned about the eeveelutions. Sam was 3 grades higher than Dallas; he was in the fourth grade while Dallas was in the first. However, since Sam was about to go on a journey to catch all the known pokémon, he was soon going to be taught at home. Sam thought it was weird that when he was Dallas's age, that he never thought about the kind of things that he thought of.

"Well," Sam thought "I think it would have to be a vaporeon."

"Really? Why that one?"

"Well I always thought that it looked the coolest. Also, the ability to turn into water at anytime would also be pretty awesome."

"You want to know what I would want to be?" Dallas said with anxiety.

"What?"

"An espeon."

"Because it's a psychic type?"

"Kinda. But the biggest part of why is their fur."

"Fur?"

"Yeah. See, today we learned that espeon's fur is very sensi...sensi…" Dallas stumbled as he tried to say the word.

"Sensitive?" Sam guessed.

"Yeah that's the word. Their fur is so sen-sit-ive," Dallas said, pronouncing each syllable slow, "that they can pick up things like air currents. So they can predict the weather and stuff like that."

"Well that is kinda cool." Sam said genuinely.

"But the coolest part," Dallas continued "is that their skin can pick up mindwaves.

"Mindwaves?"

"Yeah, like what you think. I don't really know how it all works, but I do know that if espeons concentrate a lot, they can read people's minds."

"Huh… interesting." Sam replied as they continued on their way home.

Sam snapped back to reality as he came to a realization.

"That's what you've been doing! You haven't been meditating at all. You've been reading peoples minds!"

"Indeed, that is true." Cassius responded very casually. Sam was really mad at him for not telling him this sooner, and for reading is mind. But anger was not the chief emotion he felt right now. It was actually more of sadness.

"I guess this means you won't be coming with me anymore since you know I'm human." He said with sadness in his voice.

"I never said that." Cassius responded back.

"But you know that once we reach my house I can just capture you, right?" Sam questioned. Cassius looked Sam in the eyes. He then said something in the most serious voice that Sam had heard him talk in before.

"I told you I would help you get home, right?" He asked.

"Uh… I guess you did, yeah."

"Then that is what I will do, no matter what the cost."

Sam was surprised by this answer. Here was a pokémon who wanted to help get someone home that was going to capture them when he got there. Sam could not wrap his head around this.

"You won't…" Sam said hesitantly.

"No I won't tell anyone, seeing how the other two have a reason to hate humans." Cassius finished.

"Alright," Sam said. "Well, good night I guess."

"Good night."

After this Sam went back to where his bed was set up and layed down. Everyone else was asleep except for him and Cassius, even the mightyena. _The mightyena! _Sam thought. Only now had it dawned on him that the last pokémon that he need to catch was just a few yards away from him. That meant that all the pokémon he need to catch were right here, in this clearing. _I'll think about that later._ Sam thought and then proceeded to fall into a deep sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys. This is up earlier than it normally would be, but I just felt like writing a lot this week. Hope you like it.**

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><p>Sam didn't think that sleeping on a pile of leaves would be very comfortable, and he was right. It wasn't comfortable, at least compared to his mareep wool bed at home. So because of this, Sam woke up a lot earlier than he normally did. Sam shrugged off the morning drowsiness and got out of his 'bed.' As he looked around, he could see that everyone else was still asleep except for Cassius; his bed was empty. Sam looked around to see where he could have gone. After a few seconds, Sam found the espeon sitting on the edge of the cliff from earlier, which happened to be facing the the sun as it rose above the horizon.<p>

"I see you still watch the sunrise." Sam said as he approached Cassius.

"Always have," he responded, "and I always will."

"Why is that?" Sam asked as he sat down next to Cassius.

"I just like the sun. It's the whole reason that I became an espeon, remember?"

"Yeah, I know," Sam replied. "I just wanted to know if there was any specific reason."

"Well, before I was an espeon I liked the sun just because of how majestic it was. It was the glowing yellow star the gives us all life and shines on our life so that we can live our life to the fullest extent. Now that I am an espeon, the sun gives me physical strengths as well."

"Really?" Sam questioned.

"Indeed," Cassius continued. "just like umbreons get their power from the moon, we espeons get our power from the sun. It's just a lot less noticeable."

"Hey Cass?"

"Hm?"

"Can I ask you a question?" Sam said. He really didn't want to ask him this question, but he knew that he should.

"Sure. What is it?"

"So… you don't hate humans like Drake, right?" Sam started.

"Correct. I've already told you I was very close to my master. You must also know that one of the ways eevees to evolve into espeons is by happiness towards a human."

"So you don't think that all humans are bad like Drake does?"

"Well of course not. I know that humans can be good. Granted, there are some bad ones, like Team Rocket, but there are equally or even more good humans than there are bad ones." Cassius said.

"Then why don't you tell Drake that?" Sam asked.

"He won't listen to me."

There was silence for a bit until Sam had finally mustered up the strength to ask Cassius the real question.

"Hey Cass?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think I'm a good human?"

Cassius didn't answer at first and just continued to stare at the rising sun. When he did answer, it was very vague. "I guess we'll see soon, won't we?" He said.

Before he could think about what Cassius had meant, Sam heard some footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw the mightyena was walking towards them. She stopped walking when she saw that Sam had noticed her. He hoped that she hadn't overheard anything that they had talked about.

"Well good morning," Sam said in a voice that was a bit more cheery than he would have thought he'd sound, just waking up himself. The mightyena just stood there, opening her mouth like she was going to say something, but nothing ever came out.

"Do you want something?" Cassius asked when she didn't say anything.

"Well I…" was all she was able to get out before Cassius cut her off.

"Of course you can travel with us." Cassius finished her question before she had even said it. "As long as it's okay with the other members of our party," he said as he turned to Sam as if asking a question.

"Uhh…" Sam was still processing what happened. "I guess… I don't… have a problem with it," he said, very confused by the whole situation.

"And I'm also pretty sure both of the others will gladly have you join us." Cassius said.

"Right," the mightyena said very quietly and then started to walk away.

"What's your name by the way?" Sam asked her as she walked away. The mightyena stopped walking, looked at the ground and answered with a simple "Kate."

Once she was out of earshot, Sam turned back to Cassius. "I thought you couldn't you you psychic abilities on dark types."

"I can't," Cassius answered.

"Then what was that? How did you know what she was going to say?"

"It was quite easy to tell what she wanted to ask, with the hesitancy and all."

"Alright Sherlock," Sam said with a bit of snark in his voice.

"Who?" Cassius asked.

"Nevermind."

The other two eeveelutions awoke of their own accord. Lily looked a bit less peppy than she usually did, but that was probably just the morning grogginess. Drake actually looked surprisingly good for someone who had just taken a flamethrower to the face not one day ago. Being a fire type probably helped.

"Are you good enough to travel?" Cassius asked Drake.

"I think so," he replied. "It still hurts a little, but not so much that I can't walk."

"I hope you two don't mind," Cassius continued, "but Kate is going to be traveling with us."

"Kate?" the two asked in unison. Cassius then nodded towards the mightyena who was sitting by herself beside a tree. Drake and Lily both gave a nod of realization and turned back to Cassius.

"I certainly don't mind," Lily said. "After all, the more the merrier, right Dray?"

"Hm?" Drake said, not realizing she would ask him a question. "Uh… yeah, I guess so."

"Alright then. Let's get going." Cassius said. "We have a lot of ground to travel today, so let's get to it. Sam, can you carry the berry bag since Drake isn't in the condition to ca-"

"I am too," Drake interrupted him. "I can carry the bag." He said as he went over to where the bag was and picked it up.

"Alright then. Let's get going." Cassius said and then took point as everyone else followed, with Kate tailing behind. Sam wondered what her story was, why she was in houndoom territory, and why she wanted to travel with them, but he decided not to think of it too much.

* * *

><p>"...and then, Drake tripped off the rock and fell plunging into the water!" Lily said, finishing her story. Sam couldn't help but laugh a little. Even Lily herself started to laugh a little. "And that's why he never wanted to evolve into a vaporeon."<p>

"Yes, thank you for embarrassing me Lily. Really appreciate it." Drake said, clearly not as amused by the story.

"I'm sorry Dray, but you have to admit it was pretty funny." Lily answered with a smile.

"Maybe" Drake said. He himself couldn't help but smile a little. Not because of the story, but because his sister was smiling. If Lily could have fun at his expense, then he guessed it was worth it.

"Jeez, why is it so cold?" Sam asked. The sun had risen substantially, but it still was really cold.

"Well it could be because it's almost winter," Drake said, "or it's because you have an Ice type next to you."

"Oh... sorry," Lily said, a bit embarrassed. She then walked a bit away from Sam and he instantly heated up.

"Oh wow," Sam commented, "you were right."

"Welcome to what I have to deal with everyday." Drake said with a little grin on his face.

"Hey!" Lily exclaimed, but when she saw Drake's smile, she knew he was kidding.

"Come back over here, Lily. I don't really mind that much." Sam said.

"Okay." Lily walked back over beside Sam and he instantly regretted his decision to let her come back.

"So why did you chose to become a flareon Drake?" Sam asked to try and keep his mind off the cold he was feeling.

"Well, it was really just because that was the first option that opened up to me. Lily and I were exploring a cave once, and we had just happened to run into a fire stone while we were in there. Since Lily didn't want to evolve into a flareon, I took the opportunity."

"I didn't really like the idea of being a fire type," Lily stated. "I was kinda the opposite mostly. I liked cold climates more than hotter ones. The mountains were also some of my favorite places to be."

"Is that why you evolved into a glaceon?" Sam asked.

"Yes, actually. When I told Dray that I wanted to evolve into a glaceon, he took me up to the mountains and found an icy rock. I then battled with some snorunt that were near by, and before you know it, I evolved."

"Well that's cool." Sam said. He then realized that he had made a really bad pun. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Lily said with a little giggle. "So Sam, what do you want to evolve into? Do you know?"

Sam didn't really know how to answer this question. He didn't know if he could evolve because he wasn't technically an eevee. He could tell them what he would want to evolve into, but then they might take him up on that offer if they found a way to evolve him. No, he would just play it safe.

"I don't really know." Sam lied. "Haven't given it much thought I guess."

"I hope you don't mind me asking," the mightyena known as Kate said as she caught up to the others, "but I was wondering where we are going." This was the first thing she had said all trip, so everyone was a bit surprised by her sudden willingness to talk.

"We are taking Sam here to his owners on the far side of town." Cassius answered her from where he was a few feet in front of everybody else..

"Oh…" Kate said as she gave Sam a wary look.

_What's that supposed to mean? _Sam thought to himself.

"Why don't you just go through the city?" Kate questioned. "It would be a lot faster and safer." Everyone was a bit confused by this.

"Faster," Cassius responded "yes. But I don't think it would be very safe. What with all the humans running around trying to catch you. Did you forget that?"

"Guess I did…" Kate responded back.

"How do you forget something like that?" Lily asked.

"I've technecly already been captured once, which means I can't be captured again. I guess I just got used to that."

"Really? So if you get captured then you can't get caught by another person?" Lily asked.

"Kinda," Sam explained. "You see, the pokéballs have a special security measure that they put in them that makes it so if you already have a pokéball that is yours, then any amount of struggle when you are in another pokéball will make you break free, therefor you can't be caught again. However, if a pokémon does not struggle at all, like let's say they want to be caught, then the pokéball is able to capture them. It's just another layer of security to protect against pokémon thieves."

"Interesting," Lily said with genuine interest.

"How were you captured?" Drake asked.

"That…is a story for another time," Kate finished and went back to her sulking, obviously not wanting to talk anymore.

"Then that means that you can't be captured either, right Cass?" Lily asked.

"Not true. See, in my masters will, he said for me to be released to the wild. Once a pokémon is released from it's pokéball, it is able to be caught again.

"Have you ever thought about getting a new master?" Sam asked.

"I have thought about it." Cassius replied shortly. This, of course,did not tell Sam if he wanted to or not.

Sam looked up into the sky and saw that it was closing in upon noon.

"I can't believe we have been walking for a few hours now," Lily said.

"Well, you know what they say," Sam commented. "Cheerful company shortens the miles."

"Who say's that?" Lily questioned.

"Oh...uh...I don't know. _They _do I guess."

"They do?"

"Yeah, you know, _them_."

"Alright," LIly said, clearly a bit confused on what Sam had meant by that.

"Hey Cass, can we stop for a lunch break," Sam asked when he saw the espeon stop in front of him. "I'm getting kinda hu-"

"Quiet," Cassius soon shushed him.

"Well sorry, I just wanted t-"

"I said quiet!" Cassius said in a voice that was totally unlike him. Even Kate, who hadn't really cared about what anyone said this entire trip, looked up at him.

"What's the matter?" Drake asked in a voice that was quiet, but still demanding.

"Somethings not right." Cassius responded. "The air waves here feel weird. Like something unnatural is around here, something human made.

"What do you think it could be?" Lily asked as the four caught up to him.

"I don't k-" Cassius started to say, but he stopped as a look of terror enveloped his face. "It's a trap," Cassius said barely above a whisper, which made the other wonder if they heard what he said right or not.

"A what?" Drake said impatiently, obviously wanting to know what was going on.

"It's a trap!" Cassius said, this time plenty loud so everyone heard what he said. "Get back! Get back now!" Cassius yelled. The other four were suddenly pushed back a few meter by an unknown force. All of them tumbled to the ground. As they were trying to get back up, they saw the ground beneath Cassius, and therefore, the ground where they used to be, give way and collapse. Cassius fell into the hole that was made.

"Cass!" Sam yelled out and ran to the edge of the new hole. All he could see was pitch black, meaning that the hole was very deep. "Cassius!," Sam cried out into the void below. The others soon joined him in looking into the pit.

"Cassius…," Lily said looking down into the hole. "He must of thrown us with his psychic to get us out of the way."

"We have to go find him!" Drake yelled out.

"Down there?" Kate asked like Drake was crazy.

"Because it's so dark down there it's got to be a cave." Drake kept going as if he didn't hear her. "There must be another entrance to the cave around here somewhere. Let's go find it."

"Right," Sam and Lily said in unison. Drake was a bit surprised to see Sam wanting to help when before he didn't want to help Kate, but he didn't have time to think about that right now.

"Kate, are you coming?" Drake asked.

"Well…" she said hesitantly, "I guess I have a debt to pay to you guys, so yes, I'll come."

"Alright, let's move out!" Drake commanded and they all split up and started to look for a cave entrance.

Little did the group know that while they were splitting up they were being watched by two humans from far away.

"James, how deep did you dig that hole?" The first human said while putting down her binoculars. She was wearing a short skirt as well as a short undershirt that stopped around her stomach. Her over shirt was a bit shorter and had a big red 'R' on it. She was wearing very long black boots that almost reached her skirt as well as matching gloves just as long. Her crimson hair jutted straight out of her head a foot or so and curled up at the end.

"Oh yes, I guess I forgot to tell you," the other human named James said. His outfit was matching with the girl, but a lot less revealing. His pants went all the way down to his feet just above his boots and his undershirt was tucked in. His gloves and boot were identical to the girls. His bright blue hair was medium length and went to about his neck. "When Meowth and I were digging, we dug into a cave and even fell in ourselves." he continued to explain.

"How did you forget to tell me that?" the girl asked impatiently.

"Well Jessie," James said with a bit of irritation in his voice, "it's because when we found the way out, you immediately wanted us to cover over the hole."

Jessie was visibly angry. "Why can't you two do anything right," she said as she hit herself on her head.

"You know," a meowth said as he jumped up to where Jessie and James were sitting, "if you wanted it done right then you should've helped us." To this comment, Jessie promptly smacked the meowth on the head.

"Even though you can talk it doesn't mean you should sometimes, Meowth."

"Meowth is right," James agreed meekly. "You always have us do the hard work." To this comment, Jessie promptly smacked James on the head.

"I am not made for physical labor!" Jessie exclaimed. She then looked back through her binoculars and saw that none of the pokémon from before were there anymore. "Well it looks like we missed our chance."

"You know," James said as he rubbed his now sore head, "We both fell really far in the cave. If we didn't blast off as much as we do, I think I probably would have broken something."

"And…?" Jessie said, expecting more.

"Well, if that espeon isn't as used to falling long distances like we are, it probably broke something, like its legs." James said. He then continued with his voice getting more confident. "So, all we need to do is go into that cave and capture it for the boss! It won't be able fight back because it's too weak!"

"Yeah, dat's a good plan!" Meowth said once he recovered. "We are pokémon thieves after all."

"Only one problem." Jessie said. The other two looked at her confused.

"And what is that?" James questioned.

"You do know what wild pokémon live down there, right?"

"Oh, yeah," Meowth said very grimly.

"I recall, yes" said James, "but what's so bad about them?"

"You haven't heard?" Meowth asked.

"I guess not," James replied.

"If you get caught inside their caves, they suck your soul out."

"Really?" James said, now knowing what the other two were afraid of.

"Look it up if you don't believe me."

James pulled out of his pocket a deck of pokémon cards. He shuffled through them until he found specific card.

"Hmm, let's see here… the darkness pokémon… weight… 24.3 pounds… height is…bleh bleh bleh... ah! Here we are. They are thought to steal the souls of people with their eyes…"

James then put the pokémon cards back in his pocket. "Hmm, guess you're right. Then what do we do?"

"Well," Jessie concluded, "the other pokémon are probably going to go looking for that espeon, so we have to wait and see if they even get out alive, then we can plan on how to capture them."

"In the mean time, can we get some food?" James asked. "I'm starving."

"Well, if you have the money then sure, go ahead." Jessie said sarcastically. James just frowned and let out a groan. Of course he didn't have money, none of them did. So, he just layed down on his back and decided to think of something other than his stomach.

* * *

><p>"You think this is it?" Sam asked. They were at the entrance of a cave. All four of them looked inside the cave with worried looks on their faces.<p>

"Yeah," Drake answered, "this has to be it."

"We have to go down there?" Kate said with obvious worry in her voice.

"It's the only way to find Cassius." Drake said. "Alright, let's go in." All four of the travelers started into the cave.

"Please Cassius," Sam whispered to himself, "please be okay…"

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><p><strong>If you could review that would be cool. I would love some feedback.<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys. Here's a new chapter for y'all who actually read this. Hope you like it.**

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><p>The caves were never ending. They were like a labyrinth, lots of twists and turns as well as many dead ends. The group would find themselves going down a way that they thought was right, only to be stopped in their tracks by a stone wall. The only reason they were able to see in the first place was because Drake had made an ember in his mouth that gave off faint light. The fire made the travelers' shadows dance around on the walls. It was entertaining to Sam, watching the shadows. That was, until he bumped into Drake, which made the flame go out. He was given a proper scolding, and then the group continued on. Sam couldn't help but notice that Lily wasn't being herself. She was usually cheery and optimistic, but not now.<p>

"Hey Lily," Sam said to get her attention. "Why are you so down?"

"It's just… I hope Cassius is alright," she responded with worry in her voice.

"He will be; you'll see."

"I hope you're right," she said softly.

_I hope I am, too, _Sam thought. "You know," Sam started to get his mind off of the 'what if's', "it would probably be very hard for a linoone to travel around here."

"A linoone?" Lily said. "Why?"

"Well, linoone are fittingly known as the rushing pokémon since they can run up to 60 miles per hour. However, they are also very notorious for not being able to turn very easily. So this place must be a nightmare because they wouldn't be able to run fast and they can't turn well."

"Interesting," Lily said.

"How do you know that?" Kate asked.

"Sam's really smart." Lily replied. "See, he's actually literate and so he's read a ton of books back at the house he lives. Sam know almost everything there is to know about pokémon."

_Almost… _Sam thought, remembering how he didn't know how espeon's fur worked. It's not like him to just forget pokémon facts, even if it's for a pokémon he hasn't caught. He remembered facts about mightyena. In fact, mightyena usually travel in packs and work together. _Wonder why this one isn't _Sam thought.

"You're literate?" Kate asked, snapping Sam out of his thoughts.

"Oh… yeah… I am," he replied hesitantly.

"Hm…" Kate once again gave Sam a weary look, a look of untrusting.

_What's up with her? _Sam thought.

As they continued to go deeper into the cave, Sam kept thinking that he was seeing things in the dark. Things like glowing eyes looking at him. He, however, passed these things off as just his imagination. Eventually, they made it to a large open cavern in the cave. Surprisingly, there was enough light coming in from a hole in the ceiling that everyone was able to see. This allowed Drake to extinguish the flame in his mouth.

"I think this is where he fell," Drake said, "so look around." The group started to search for their psychic friend. It didn't take long for them to find Cassius, seeing how he was the only pink thing in this entire cave as well as being right under the hole in the ceiling. He was laying on the floor, silently.

"Cassius!" Sam yelled out when he saw him and ran to where he was. Once he got there, he saw that Cassius was struggling to get up. "You're okay!" Sam exclaimed with joy.

"Not exactly," Cassius said as he fell back down.

"What do you mean?" Sam said as the rest of the crew caught up with him. Sam then looked at Cassius's legs and saw that two of them were twisted the wrong way.

"Oh my god…" Lily whispered when she saw his legs.

"Here, Sam, help me carry him," Drake said. "We can help him once we're above ground."

"Right," Sam said. Both he and Drake put Cassius on their backs and started to walk the direction they came.

"Where do you think you're going?" a voice from behind them said. Sam looked back to see a pokémon that he would have hoped he'd never see again.

"Sableye," Sam said, partly to notify the others in case they had never seen or heard of this pokémon before, and partly just out of disgust.

"Hm… someone actually knows who we are; that's a first," the sableye said.

"We?" Sam asked. Just then two other sableye stepped out of the darkness behind the first.

"We don't take too kindly to people who just wander into our territory," the first one continued.

"We didn't wander!" Lily shouted back. "Our friend here just happened to fall in and we are getting him out."

"Is that so?" the first sableye said. "Well, I'm sorry, but we have to punish you in some way. It's not like we can just let you guys leave." He then looked over to Sam and Drake. "Maybe I'll just break that espeon's other two legs. What do you think about that boys?" he looked back towards his comrades. The other two sableye nodded their heads and put on their creepy smile that sableye were known for.

"Oh yeah?," Sam growled, "Well, you'll have to get through me first! Lily, take Cassius." Lily followed orders and took Sam's place of carrying the espeon. Sam jumped in front of the others and got into his best battle stance. "Go, get out of here," Sam told the others. "I'll hold them off."

"I like your determination, but do you really think you can beat all three of us?" The first sableye said with a little smirk.

"No," Sam replied confidently, "but I guess we're about to find out."

"No we're not," Kate said and got next to Sam, "because you won't be fighting alone."

"Drake, Lily, get Cassius out of here." Sam told the others

"Right," Drake said. "Let's get moving."

"Sam…" Lily said. Sam turned back to her. "Be careful…"

"I'll try," he said back with a smile. "Now go." The other two started to leave the cave.

"Well, I guess you two will work," the main sableye said. "Let's make sure that they don't chicken out." The second sableye nodded and charged towards the entrance where they came in from. He hit the wall so hard that it cause some of the rocks from the ceiling to collapse and block the exit. The sableye then went back and stood beside his superior once more. "Now that that's out of the way, get them," the main sableye commanded the other two. They stepped forward and got into battle stances.  
>"I got the mightyena," the third one said.<p>

"This should be over quick," the second one said.

"We'll see about that!" Sam shouted and charged towards his opponent.

* * *

><p>"Hey Cassius, are you doing alright?" Drake asked as they trudged through the cave.<p>

"I've felt better," Cassius said, gritting his teeth in pain.

"Once we get to the surface, we can find some berries for you to munch on while I do my best to put the bones back in place."

"That won't be necessary."

"Why not?"

"Just… get me to where I can see the sun."

"Why?"

"You'll see."

"Hey Lily, why are you looking downcast?" Drake asked when he saw his sister looking very depressed.

"We just left Sam and Kate back there. They won't be able to get out they way they came because of that cave in. I don't know what will happen to them."

"I don't know either." Drake replied. He had only come on this journey because Lily wanted to. If he would have known before what would happen, then Drake would have tried to talk Lily out of it. The thing was that, up until now, Drake hadn't cared about Sam. He still really didn't. He dwelt with humans, and that was enough reason to hate him. Before, in the fights with the houndoom, Drake had actually hoped that Sam would have gotten too hurt to go on, or just scared and run off so they wouldn't have to help him any farther. However, with what Sam had just done, that wasn't going to happen. Drake thought that because of this, he would have been mad that they would have to keep going. However, since they had traveled so far, that if Sam did die or get too scared, then all of it would be for not. _I guess we'll just have to see._

* * *

><p><em>None of my attacks are working, <em>Sam thought. He had tried all the ones that he knew: head-butt, takle, swift; none of them were working. They would all go right through the sableye. Kate wasn't doing the best either.

"Did you forget that normal attacks don't work on ghost types?" the sableye that was fighting said mockingly.

"Kate, none of my attacks are working," Sam called out to the mightyena, hoping that she could be able to do something.

"Hang on!" Kate yelled as she dodged another shadow claw from the third sableye. "Here we go," she said and then proceeded to close her eyes and start to sniff.

_What is she doing? _Sam thought. Even the sableye were confused as they had stopped fighting momentary. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and yelled, "Aim for the ruby!"

"What?" Sam asked, very puzzled on what that meant. Kate wasn't able to answer because the third sableye was on her just after she had said that. _The ruby huh? _Sam thought. He looked over to the sableye that he was fighting, and didn't see any kind of ruby. _Don't they have gems on their backs? _Sam hadn't seen a sableye in a long time, since the one he caught for the pokédex he had caught about 4 years ago. The sableye used a night slash and Sam just barely dodged it. And by dodged it, he really just fell over onto his back. However, for a split second, Sam was able to see the sableye's back. And on his back were three gems. A sapphire, an emerald, and a ruby. _Guess so. Not sure why I have to aim there, but I might as well try._ Sam was wondering on how he would get around the sableye. He then got an idea. Sam charged into the sableye with a tackle which, unsurprisingly, didn't work as Sam passed right through him.

"That won't work!" the sableye taunted while he just stood there not turning around, clearly not threatened by Sam at all.

"Yeah? Well this will!" Sam shouted as he rammed his head with all his might into the ruby on his back. The sableye cried out in pain as he was pushed across the room, and fell onto the floor, fainted. _All bark, no bite_ Sam thought. Just then, he saw the other sableye jump towards Kate and use shadow claw. Kate just waited until the last second, and then she jutted one of her paws into his stomach. The sableye was knocked back by the punch and fell onto the ground, also not able to battle.

"Very impressive," the first sableye said who had been watching the whole battle. "the way you used your smell to help pick out their weak points. Sadly, however, I can't have you actually winning, so I'll just have to intervene." Suddenly a sharp pain erupted inside Sam's head. It kept growing until it felt like his mind was going to be fried. He screamed and fell onto the ground. Sam was able to hear his name being called out just before he fell unconscious.

* * *

><p>Lily and Drake were just able to carry Cassius up to the surface before both of them collapsed out of exhaustion. Since there were trees above them, the sun was just barely shining through the leaves.<p>

"Is this enough sunlight for you?" Drake asked Cassius.

"No, I need… a direct ray… of sun." Cassius said in between heavy breaths.

"Alright, Lily, can you carry him just a bit farther into some better sunlight? I'll go and find some berries to help stop the pain."

"Yeah, I guess I can." Lily replied. She picked up Cassius on her back again and started to slowly take him towards a place out of the trees. It took a lot longer for her to carry him since Drake was no longer taking a majority of the height. Lily found a clearing that had a lot of sunlight. It helped that the sun was about overhead  
>"Is this good enough?" Lily asked.<p>

"Yes, this is."

Lily laid Cassius down on the ground and started to find some sticks that would work as splints. She had only taken a few steps before she saw something out of the corner of her eye that was shining very brightly. When she looked back at it, she saw that Cassius was glowing as the sun's ray's intensified.

"Cassius?" Lily said with wonder in her voice. Before she could get any closer, the light that Cassius was emitting grew very rapidly. So much so that Lily wasn't even able to look at him anymore. She turned her head to shield her eyes from the bright light. After a little bit, the bright light disappeared. When Lily looked back, Cassius was still laying down and it looked like nothing had changed.

"Are you okay Cass?" Lily asked once she got closer to him.

"Never felt better," he replied, and then got up onto his feet.

"No, don't stand on-" Lily started to say, but stopped when she saw that Cassius was perfectly fine. Lily was stunned ."What… happened?" She said once she was able to talk.

"Did you not do your research on espeons?" Cassius said with a smile.

"Well, I know that espeons get power from the sun, but I didn't know that they got that much power."

"It's a move that humans call morning sun. It draws on the powers of the sun to heal the user."

"Wow. That's why you wanted to be in the sunlight."

"Indeed."

Just then, Drake bursted into the clearing.

"I saw a bright light and came running to see what it was." Drake said. "Are you guys okay?" He then saw Cassius standing up right and perfectly fine, with no sign that he was ever injured. Upon seeing this, Drake let out a sigh. "You never fail to surprise, Cassius."

"We can't just stick around," Cassius said once everyone was over the fact that he had just done the equivalent of a miracle. "We need to get to another cave entrance and find Sam and Kate."  
>"Are you sure you don't need to rest even a little bit more?" Drake asked. "I mean, not five minutes ago two of your legs were broken."<p>

"I guess I'm a bit tired, but now is not the time to rest. We have to find the others." Cassius replied.

"How do we even know that there is another cave entrance?"

"We don't. We just have to hope there is one."

"We could try and go down the hole from earlier." Lily chimed in.

"I don't see how that will help us, since we can't climb down into it." Drake responded.

"Well, we'll never get anywhere if we don't start looking, so let's split up." Cassius took command. "Let's meet back here in fifteen minutes."

"Alright. Stay safe Lily," Drake said.

"I will," she replied. "And don't fall into any more holes," she said to Cassius.

"I'll try," he said with his signature smile.

As they started to look for the cave, Lily couldn't stop worrying.

"Please, Sam," Lily whispered to herself, "please be okay."

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for reading! I would like it if you could review.<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

Once Sam regained consciousness, he had a huge headache. He tried to open his eyes, but he couldn't get himself to. He decided to sit there a little longer. Before long, he started to hear voices talking somewhere near him.

"That was a mighty fine job you did back there." Sam recognized it as the first sableye's voice.

"And by mighty," Sam heard the second one's voice, " you mean mightyena, am I right?" The first one laughed a bit at the second's pun.

"I don't see how we did any good," the third one spoke up. "We both lost, didn't we?"

"That is true," the first one said, "but you did a lot better than the last time."

"Not really. We still lost." the third one replied in a sober tone of voice. It took a bit, but Sam finally had mustered the strength to open his eyes. Once he did, he was able to see that he was still in the cave. As he tried to move, his attempts were thwarted by ropes that tied him to a wooden pole, planted firmly in the ground. How they were able to get a wooden pole into rock was anyone's guess. Kate was also tied up on the same pole, but she was still unconscious. All the sableye were sitting on some rocks that were around a little fire that was in the middle of the clearing. The fire was the only light in the entire area, so it was very hard to see.

"Oh, cheer up Ike," the second one said as he sat next to the third one. "To be honest, I don't think I would have known that that mightyena was such a high enough level to know Sucker Punch."

"I guess." Ike responded.

"Speaking of which," the first one said as he turned to the second one, "you probably know what I'm going to say, right Jack?"

"Yeah I know," the second one replied. "I should have been more focused and not let that eevee hit me in the back."

"The mightyena even called out your weak spot. Did you not hear her?"

"Nope." Jack said and then went back to his original place. "Too wrapped up in the battle, I guess."

"That's why you always have to be alert," the first one said, continuing his lecture. "Don't just focus on one thing in a battle, but try and focus on everything. That is one of the key points in battling."

"Alright. I'll try." Jack said and started to lean back on his rock.

"However," the first one changed to a lighter tone of voice, "your rock smash is getting a lot better. I could have mistaken it for a rockslide, to be honest.

"Yeah, I guess it is getting better." Jack said with a little boast in his voice. "Hey K? Why didn't we just eat the souls of those two instead of capturing them?" he said and then nodded to Sam and Kate.

"You obviously have never had eevee meat," the first one who was called K said. "Their souls don't taste nearly as good as their meat."

"And the mightyena?"

"Well, I've never had them, but you know how dark types' souls taste." K said. Jack let out a disgusted 'bleh'.

"I don't think I'll ever get that murkrow taste out of my mouth." Jack commented. They two of them looked over to their other partner, who was still just looking down with an unreadable expression.

"What's the matter, Ike?" K said and sat down next to him.

"It's just… I don't think that I'll ever be a good battler like you to are." Ike said.

"This isn't about the humans again, is it?" Jack said as he, too, went over next to Ike.

"Yeah…" Ike whispered.

"Listen," K said, "I've told you before, even though we have been trained by humans and have moves only humans can teach us, it doesn't mean that you can be any less a battler then Jack or I."

"Maybe," Ike replied back.

Sam felt some stirring beside him and looked to find that Kate was just now waking up.

"Where are we?" she whispered.

"Inside the sableye's den. Are you alright?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"I think so," Kate said in response.

"Do you know what happened back there? How did we get captured?"

"Well, I think that first sableye knew psychic somehow, and that's how he knocked you out. He also some how knew a fairy move, which is how he got me."

"Really?" Sam said in disbelief. "Well, he did say just now that he was trained by humans. Maybe they used some TM's to train him."

"Perhaps."

"By the way, how did you know that the Sableye's weak point was his ruby?"

"Well, all ghosts have a weak point somewhere on their body. You can't usually see them unless you have really good eyesight."

"Or you can sniff them out?" Sam guessed.

"Right."

"Hey, look who's awake." Jack said as he got up from his rock and went over towards the two. "K says that you'll taste good. I hope he's right. I haven't had something good to eat in a while," Jack put on his creepy smile. "The only things to eat around here are the pidgeys and wurmples." He went back to where he was sitting. "So when are we going to eat them?" Jack asked.

"Since we had a late breakfast, we should probably wait a little longer."

Sam had something on his mind, and he wanted to ask it. "Hey Kate?" Sam said, "Since we are tied up here, could I ask you a question?"

"I don't feel like this is the time for that."

"Well, we can't really do anything else right now, seeing how we are tied up."

Kate gave off a sigh. "Alright then, what's your question?"  
>"You said that you'd been captured once. Could you tell me about that?"<p>

"Not really."

"_Will _you tell me about it?"

Kate let out another sigh. "Well, since it looks like we are about to be eaten, I don't see a problem with it."

"Alright," Sam said. He, of course, didn't want to be eaten. He would come up with a plan later, but he was waiting for a better opportunity.

"You see," Kate started, "there was a point in time where I was a part of a pack. I was just a poochyena at that point. I loved my pack like they were my family, which some of them were. One day, when I got seperated from my pack, this trainer came by and captured me.

_That sounds like how I caught my poochyena _Sam thought and he chuckled a bit at the similarity. Then, something clicked inside of his brain. _No… that's not possible. _

"It felt like forever that I was stuck inside that ball." Kate continued. "When I finally got out, I was in a totally different place, one that I didn't know at all. When the human said he was going to train me, I scratched one of the his legs and then ran off. I've never been able to see my pack since and I've been stuck in this strange land."

Sam couldn't believe what he had just heard. Did he hear it right? Was he imagining this? Was this a dream? It couldn't be true. Kate, the mightyena before him, was the poochyena that he had captured two years ago.

* * *

><p>"Well, there they are," Jessie said while looking through her binoculars. "But the eevee and mightyena are still not with them."<p>

"Do you think they're going to look for them?" Meowth asked. He didn't have binoculars of his own, so he had to ask questions to know what was going on.

"Maybe," Jessie replied, not entirely sure herself what they were doing.

"You know," James spoke up, while putting down his binoculars, "why do we need all five? Why can't we just catch the three of them that are above ground, especially now that they are split up again?"

"Do you think that the boss would appreciate us only bringing him three?" Jessie said.

"Well, seeing how we haven't really caught anything for him and those three are eeveelutions, yes, I do think the boss would appreciate us bringing those."

"True," Meowth said, "but wonder what he would say if we would bring him all of d'em. He'll give us even more money and we'll rise up the Team Rocket corporate ladder even faster!"

"Now that you put it that way, I say let's capture all of them!" James exclaimed.

"That's the spirit, Jimmy!"

"So we just have to wait until the other two come out of the caves." Jessie said as she looked back through her binoculars. "Also, that espeon's legs aren't broken, so you were wrong James."

"It was just a theory!" James said as he put his hands up in defence.

"Hang on," Meowth said, "what if the others don't make it out? What if the sableye get 'em?

"That won't be a problem because we'll make sure that they do get out." Jessie said with a smile.

"Do you have a plan?" Meowth asked.

"No, but we'll just play it by ear."

* * *

><p>"Well, this looks like another cave entrance to me." Drake said as the three approached a gloomy looking hole on the side of a hill.<p>

"Nice find, Lily." Cassius commented.

"I think you all are giving me too much credit. It wasn't that hard to find."

"Alright then, let us move!" Cassius said and then started to walk down into the cave.

"Ladies first." Drake said to Lily in a semi-serious, semi-kidding voice.

"Age before beauty." Lily said back. To this, Drake gave her a stare that turned into a smile.

"Fine," he said and then went in after Cassius. Lily couldn't help but giggle at Drake's acceptance of what she said. Then, she too went into the cave to try and find Sam and Kate.

* * *

><p>Sam had been so stunned by the realization that Kate was the poochyena that had gotten away from him, he just sat there, looking into the distance, lost in thought.<p>

"Are you okay?" Kate asked, seeing how Sam was just sitting there blankly.

"I'm fine." Sam lied. That, however, wasn't important right now. Well, sure, it was important, but not as important as getting out of the cave and not being eaten.

"Well, me and Ike are going to clear out the rocks from your rock smash," K said. "So just make sure that those two don't escape, alright?"

"You can count on me." Jack said.

"Alright, let's go, Ike." The two sableye walked out of their little abode off to where the rocks had fallen. Sam was trying to think of some way to get himself and Kate out of this mess. He observed that there was another tunnel where the cave kept going in the opposite direction from where the rocks were, and therefore where they had come in.

_Wonder if there is another way out that way_ Sam thought. It wasn't much to go on, but it was their only option. Now there was the problem of getting out of the ropes that they were tied to. Sam started to think, and came up with a plan that just might work.

"Hey Kate?" Sam said, feeling really weird calling a pokémon that he had caught before by name.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you can take a shadow claw?"

"What?"

"Like if a shadow claw hit you, do you think you could take it?"

"Of course, why?"

"You'll see." Sam said. He took in a deep breath and then talked in a purposely loud voice. "Wow, I can't believe how easy those sableye were to defeat. I mean, that guy didn't even land a hit on me."

Jack looked in their direction. "What was that?"

"I said you were weak. I bet you don't even know how to use shadow claw."

"Yeah, I bet you can't even use it." Kate said, catching on to what Sam was trying to do.

"I do to know how to use shadow claw!" Jack said as he hopped off his rock and started to head towards Sam and Kate.

"Oh really? Then why don't you show us?"

"Oh, you want me to show you?" Jack said while putting on a creepy smile. "Oh, I'll show you all right." His claws started to glow with a black and purple color. He charged at the two and slashed his claws at them. His claws went right through both of them. Sam didn't feel anything, while Kate just flinched as it pass through her. As the sableye finished his attack, the ropes that had confined Sam and Kate fell off, setting the two free.

"Wha-!" Jack exclaimed when he had realized the mistake that he had made.

"Did you forget that ghost type attacks don't work on normal types?" Sam said mockingly. Kate and Sam took no time to start running to the other tunnel entrance.

"You get back here!" Jack yelled after him. Sam looked back and saw that he was lagging behind. Sam didn't know a lot about sableye, but he did know that they were really slow.

"Looks like we're good." Sam said, notifying Kate of their lead on Jack.

"Let's just hope there's an exit this way." she said back. The two ran and ran, going through corridors of rock after corridors of rock, hoping that they wouldn't run into any dead ends. Finally, after what felt like forever, Sam and Kate finally reached a point where the air felt a lot fresher.

"I think there might be a way out this way!" Sam said with enthusiasm in his voice. Just then, he saw something appear under him from nowhere. He looked down only to find the sableye from earlier looking like he was 2-dimensional under him. Like he was inside of the rock. Jack put on his creepiest smile and then turned back into his 3-D self right under Sam. This caused the eevee to fall over. He didn't however, feel anything, because he was a normal type.

"Thought you could get away from me that easily?" Jack asked in a sinister tone of voice. "Well then, let's make it so that you can't escape," he said. He turned around and charged at one of the walls and hit it as hard as he could. The cave started to shake as rocks from the ceiling came crashing down. Sam tried to cover his head, but it was in vain because he was now a quadruped. Sam was pelted with a few rocks, most of them being no larger than his head. Sam opened his eyes once he didn't hear anymore rocks falling. The first thing he saw was Kate, who looked pretty roughed up. She obviously got hit with more rocks than Sam did. The next thing he saw was Jack who was still standing next to the cave wall. Finally, he saw large rocks blocking the way out, the way to freedom.

Sam slowly started to get up, the last of his faith crushed. How were they going to get out now?

"Not so smart now, are ya?" Jack taunted. He then launched another rock smash, this time, right at Sam. The human-turned-pokémon tried to avoid it the best he could, but it still hit him right in the side. Sam cried out in pain as he was launched across the cave and smashed into the cave wall. Sam struggled to get up after this. His legs were shaking out of exhaustion, both from the rocks and the rock smash. Kate came behind him and launched a shadow ball at Jack as a sneak attack. Jack jumped into the air to avoid it and launched another rock smash at Kate, who also wasn't able to dodge in time. She too was thrown into the wall. Jack then turned back around to look at Sam, who was now backing up towards the rock pile that was preventing them from leaving.

_Is this it? _Sam thought. _Is this the end?_

"Sam? Is that you?" Sam heard a voice from behind him say. He knew that voice. Sam's eyes widened as he recognized it.

"Lily! Is that you?" Sam turned around shouted through the rock wall.

"SAM!" Lily shouted through the rocks. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

"Um, not exactly," He replied, trying to keep the weakness out out of his voice. He turned his head back around to see Kate trying to get up, only to be hit by a shadow claw, which knocked her down again. "Yeah, we're not doing so well. One of the sableye is giving us a hard time."  
>"Is there anyway to destroy these rocks from your side?" A voice Sam recognised as Cassius said from the other side.<p>

"Cassius? Are you okay?"

"That's not important right now. Is there anyway to destroy these rocks from your side?" he asked again.

"Um… maybe?" Sam said and then came up with a plan. "Hey you!" he shouted to get Jack's attention. "That rock smash you did didn't hurt at all. You sure that you were even trying?" Jack turned around and looked at Sam.

"Son, I may not be the brightest, but I'm not stupid. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Sam growled when he realized that his plan wasn't going to work a second time. He tried to think of something else fast. But he couldn't think of anything. He watched as the sableye got closer and closer to him.

* * *

><p>"There's got to be a way we can help them, right?" Lily said.<p>

"Well if you have a plan to clear a lot of rocks in no time, then I'm all ears." Drake replied. Lily started to look around for something, anything, that might help them. Suddenly, something small, black and round rolled down from the entrance and tapped Lily's side.

"Hm?" she said, looking at the object. Lily moved it around with her paws and saw that it had a big red 'R' on one of the sides. _That looks like Team Rocket's emblem. _Lily thought. _But why is it here? _Lily looked up towards the cave entrance and saw that no one was there. Looking closer, Lily found a wick on the object. "What is this?" she asked out loud. Both Drake and Cassius came over to see what she was looking at.

"It looks like a bomb." Cassius commented.

"A what?" Drake asked, having never heard of it before.

"It's a human made object. If you light that fuse, then it will explode."

"Really?" Lily asked with enthusiasm. "Does that mean it can blow up the rocks?"

"It's worth a shot." Cassius said.

"Hang on," Drake interrupted. "What if the explosion just makes another cave in?"

"We can't just leave Sam for dead, and this is the only action that we can do to save him."

"But this is much too dangerous. In doing so we might get ourselves killed. I don't think Sam is worth it." Drake pressed.

"Just come on!" Lily yelled. This sudden outburst took Drake by surprise. "Are you just that heartless? Come Cass," She motioned to the espeon "I'm at least going to help him. You can leave the cave if you want."

As Lily pushed the bomb with her snout towards the rocks, Drake started to go out of the cave while he was lost in thought. "That heartless…" he whispered to himself. _Am I? _Drake thought. Just then, a memory flashed in his mind.

* * *

><p>"This berry stew is delicious!" Drake shouted as he slurped down the last of the delicious stew that his mother had made. "Can I get some more?" he asked.<p>

"Yeah, I want some too," Lily said as well.

"Well, I would love to make you guys some more, but we're all out of berries." a glaceon said as she went over to where the two eevees were eating.

"Can you get some more, Mom?" Drake asked.

"Well… I guess I could go out and get some more."

"Oo! Oo! Can I go with you?" Drake said, really excited to get out of the house.

"I guess it couldn't hurt. Do you want to come too, Lily?"  
>"No, I think I'll wait until dad wakes up to play with him."<p>

"Alright, let's go, Drake."

Once Drake's mom grabbed a basket to carry the berries in, they left the house. After a few minutes of walking away from their house and looking around, the two arrived at an oran berry bush.

"So Drake, do you know what you want to evolve into?" Drake's mother asked him while she started to pick berries with her paws

"Well, not really. I think all of them are really cool. Well, except for vaporeon." Drake shuddered a bit when he said the name. "I was thinking of evolving into a glaceon because of you. Or maybe I might just stay an eevee because dad's a normal type."

"Well, I want you to evolve into what you want."

"I know mom. I may need more time to decide."

"That's fine," she said and finished filling up the basket with Drake's help. Once they were done, the two started home. As they were walking back, they were intercepted by a sandshrew who was leaning on a rock on the side of the road.

"Well, hello there Alyssa. I hope you are doing well," the ground type said when he saw the two coming his way. There was a notable look of sadness on the glaceon's face.

"Good morning, Mortimer," she said back.

"I see you are collecting berries again. Making some of that stew again?"

"Indeed," she replied. By the way that Alyssa responded to Mortimer, it would have looked like the two were friends to an outside observer. Drake, however, was not an outside observer, and he knew what the sandshrew was up to.

"I was wondering if you had taken up my offer?" the Mortimer said, still leaning on the rock.

"I have not," Alyssa responded with a stern, but still soft voice.

Mortimer pushed himself off of the rock and looked at Alyssa straight in the eye. "Come on Alyssa! Why don't you leave that dumb persian and come with me? I thought you said that you loved me?"

"That was a long time ago, and you know that. Why can't you just move on?"

"Alyssa…"

"I'm sorry Mort,"

When Alyssa said this, the sandshrew ran up, took a bunch of berries from the basket, and then ran off in the other direction.

"Hey come back here," Drake started to pursue.

"Don't, Drake. It's alright."

"But he stole our berries!"

"Let him keep them."

"But…"  
>"It's fine."<p>

Drake turned around and started to follow his mother back to their house.

"Hey, mom?"

"Yes?"

"Why were you so nice to him. He was being really mean to you, but you never once raised your voice or yelled at him."

Alyssa took a deep breath and then started to talk. "Drake, you know that it's very easy for you to be nice to someone who is nice to you back. You and your sister get along very well. But that's not how character is judged. No, character is judged by being nice to people who aren't nice to you back." She then stopped and looked at Drake. "In life, you will meet some people who you might disagree with, or that you don't like for whatever reason. Please promise me that you will not hate those people. And if it's not for building character, then do it for me."

"Alright, mommy. I promise."

Alyssa smiled and gave Drake a small hug. "Alright, let's get back to the house. Your father's probably up by now, and he'll want some stew too."

* * *

><p>"I promise…" Drake repeated to himself.<p>

"How are we going to light it then?" Drake was snapped back to reality by Lily's panicked voice.

"Well, if we had some fire we could ignite it that way." Cassius said.

"Did someone say fire?" Drake said as started to go back towards the other two.

"Dray?" Lily said with rising hope in her voice.

"Get back guys," the flareon said and then shot an ember at the wick.

"Sam, get away from the rocks!" Lily shouted. As the three started to run away from the blast zone, Lily went over to Drake."

"Thanks Dray," she said. Drake turned to his sister, and saw how much she looked like their mother.

"Yeah," he replied and then said to himself, "I promise."

* * *

><p><em>Get away from the rocks? <em>Sam questioned in his mind. _Okay, I guess. _There wasn't anyway to go around Jack, so he decided that he would go through. Sam jumped towards Jack and, as was no surprise, he went right through him. This time, however, Jack was quick to turn around.

"Nope, can't get me again. I actually learn from my mis-"BOOM!

The rocks that were blocking the exit before exploded and knocked up a cloud of dust into the air as well as making Jack fly away to the other end of the cave. At first, Sam couldn't see anything because of the dust, but once it had cleared, Sam saw Lily, Cassius, and Drake running towards him.

"Sam! Are you alright?" Lily was the first one to ask.

"I'm fine, but I don't think Kate is," Sam replied. They all looked over to where the mightyena laid on the floor. She was struggling a lot now just to get up. The other three went over to where Kate was and helped her up. Jack also got up and wasn't very happy.

"Oh no you don't!" he yelled and launched a shadow ball at the group. Cassius stopped it with his light screen. Lily breathed in and the blew out the air. It hit the sableye and he stopped moving, cringed because of how cold it was, and then froze right there in place. The four of them left the cave and once they got outside, the all fell onto the ground.

"That was close," Sam said.

"No kidding," Lily replied.

"I don't think that the sableye will follow us up into the sunlight, so I think we should rest here a bit," Cassius suggested.

"I'm fine with that," Sam said as he just layed down on the ground and rested a bit and was going to take a small nap.

* * *

><p>"Are you sure we should have used the only bomb we had left to help those pokémon get out?" James asked, thinking that it wasn't entirely worth it. "They are really expensive."<p>

"Of course it was a good idea. They're all back together." Jessie said, thinking that it was entirely worth it.

"So I guess we capture them now that they are tired?" James asked, starting to get Jessie's plan.

"No not yet, we need to wait a little more longer." Jessie said.

"What?!" James said just under a yell, seeing that he was not starting to get Jessie's plan.

"Think about it James. All the times we've failed, it was because we acted too rash. This time we are going to be patient and wait for the right opportunity."

"Alright," James said in a weak tone of voice. He didn't argue partly because Jessie was right, and partly because he didn't want to get her angry.

* * *

><p>"Morning Sun huh?" Sam said and when he heard Cassius's tale. "That's cool." They were all sitting next to a campfire that Drake had made. They had made a little bit more ground before they decided to stop for the night.<p>

"Are you doing alright, Kate?" Lily asked. The glaceon was sitting a little bit farther away from the fire for obvious reasons.

"I've been better," she replied honestly, "but I think I'll manage."

Drake yawned and then curled up to go to sleep. "Well, good night everyone."

"Good night," the rest of them said in unision. Both Lily and Kate fell asleep fast, but Sam just couldn't. The eevee just looked into the fire and reflected on everything that had happened that day.

"Can't sleep?" Sam heard Cassius ask him.

"I guess."

"Hey, Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Could I ask you a question?"

"Of course," Sam said in a quiet tone of voice to be sure not to wake the others.

"Why did you decide to help me?" he asked.

"What?"

"I thought you were a human only intent on capturing all of the pokémon. If that's the case, then why did you help me?"

Sam looked back and stared deep into the fire. He didn't say anything for a while, but when he did, it was something that Cassius couldn't help but smile at.

"Do you really need a reason to help someone?"

"No, I guess not." Cassius replied with a grin and layed down to go to bed. Sam did the same as he was now starting to feel sleep coming over him. He had a big day ahead of him, and he needed all the rest he could get.


End file.
